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Milk and Uric Acid

I love cheese. And ice cream? Adore it. But I’m limiting how much dairy I eat these days. And for my friends with Parkinson’s, I’m asking them to try to eliminate it entirely. The reason is Uric acid, and this article in intended to share with you why.

What, no dairy?

Blasphemy, you say! How could you possibly give up the creamy goodness of Greek yogurt? And how will you drink your coffee without cream? Or enjoy a pizza? If you’re not lactose intolerant, why on earth would you give up butter?

Reason #1: Chemicals!

There are two reasons to consider giving up dairy. The first has to do with the chemicals in dairy products. Most dairy products are loaded with pesticides and herbicides[1–8].

When cows eat grass or vegetation that have pesticides or herbicides on them, the chemicals go into their fat. Because dairy is how a mama cow feeds a baby cow, the mama is concentrating nutrients into the milk. Thus, the pesticides can go into milk in higher concentrations than other tissues. We’ve known that this is an issue since the 1960s, but there isn’t a good way to fix it [9].

Organic Dairy: doesn’t cover cow chow!

What about organic dairy? Yes, organic dairy is better. However, organic doesn’t mean that there are no pesticides in “cow-chow” – only that certain chemicals are not used. So by all means, if you’re going to eat dairy, go for organic. However, don’t believe that organic means 100% pure.

Reason #2: Uric acid

The other reason for people with Parkinson’s eliminating dairy has to do with the impact of dairy on human physiology, and revolves around a compound called uric acid (sometimes called urate).

Uric acid is one of those enzymes in the body that we don’t hear about very much, but it’s really important. Uric acid is one of the most potent antioxidants in the blood. When you eat protein, uric acid breaks it down to uric acid, and then secretes it into the urine. Uric acid – urine. Get it?

Keeping Uric Acid in balance

Ideally, your body wants to keep uric acid in balance – not too much, not too little. If you make too much uric acid, you can develop a painful form of arthritis called gout. Likewise, too much uric acid in the blood can result in kidney stones (although this isn’t the only way kidney stones form).

Uric acid is a hot topic in the Parkinson’s community. Many studies have shown that people with Parkinson’s have lower uric acid levels than other people[10–18]. Furthermore, some studies show that the lower the uric acid level, the more that Parkinson’s has progressed. This is a correlation, which means we don’t know if there’s a causal relationship. However, it has made many scientists sit up and take notice. Since uric acid is an antioxidant, and we know that oxidative stress is one of the mechanism’s that damages the brain, it makes sense that if someone has low uric acid, they would have more neuroinflammation.

What does this have to do with dairy?

There are a few foods that break down uric acid. As you’ve guessed by now, dairy is one of them. Dairy can break down uric acid. In fact, for people with gout (who have excess uric acid), dairy is recommended [19,20].

Dairy contains something called ‘orotic’ that helps the kidneys remove uric acid. And it happens fast! Within 3 hours of consuming of dairy, we see the decrease of uric acid.

Dairy isn’t the only thing that decreases uric acid. Cherries and pineapple can do it too [21,22] It’s just that most people eat much more dairy than they do cherries or pineapple.

Too much, too little?

If uric acid is so protective for Parkinson’s, you’d think we’d develop a drug that contains it. And sure enough, there are already drugs that increase uric acid as a side-effect. New drugs are being developed specifically for people with Parkinson’s as well and are in clinical trials. Remember, too much uric acid is also not a good thing, so these drugs are tricky.

Use your diet!

In the meantime, you can increase your natural levels of uric acid with your diet. One study suggests that people on vegan diets have the highest level of uric acid in their blood[23]. If you don’t want to make such an extreme change to your diet, simply decrease (eliminate) dairy consumption. If you think you can’t go cold turkey, try limiting your dairy consumption to 4 oz a day or less.

I know it won’t be easy. Like I said, I’m doing this too, and I simply love sour cream on my tacos. But when I weigh the risks and benefits, the dairy has to go. Believe it or not, there are dairy-free sour creams out there – some made of cashews. I’m willing to experiment. Are you?

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Hi there! I research, teach, travel, lecture and write about nutrition.
And in my spare time I'm the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM), director of Helfgott Research Institute, and Professor of Immunology.

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